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This week on the internet - Privacy and Exposure
So, there are... two opposing things that I want to talk about this time around, and I'm going to kind of take some contrasting opinions this week. The two topics this week are about respecting the privacy of internet personalities, and the other one is an internet personality's personal story. In the latter case, this person has already made certain details known, and I believe that it absolutely needs awareness. But let's talk about... the easier subject first. Recently, I Hate Everything tweeted this: "More and more people are completely disregarding my privacy and it makes me feel sick and unsafe. Some people are going WAY too far now." From what I understand, people have been trying to dox him and get a face reveal, or something similar. I suspect that his next video might have something to do with this, so my facts on what he's going through may be out of date, so I'd like to talk more about the topic of internet fame and privacy. As you probably know, "famous" on the internet is different than being real-world famous, like being a Hollywood actor or a pop chart singer. I know that this is usually used to deride the e-famous, but let's really talk about the distinction here. Here's a good rule of thumb: no one famous on the internet ever planned to be famous. Whether you're James Rolfe, Doug Walker, Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg (PewDiePie), or I Hate Everything or with me (and yes, I am using the word "fame" very loosely) even there is one major thing common in all of their stories: not only were they not seeking a mass audience, they didn't expect it. If you want to be an actor in Hollywood for instance, you need to know people, seek out agents, train for roles. To get famous on the internet, all you need to do is... well I don't really know, considering that there's almost an infinite amount of things that you could do to get famous. I mean, this doesn't sound too bad, if you're I Hate Everything or James Rolfe, who are well-liked and well-respected. But when you're someone like Rebecca Black, your life becomes hell. It seems small, but this one fact has many different facets. For instance, one day you can say something with a smaller audience and everyone likes it and laughs at it, and then the next day when your audience is slightly bigger it can massively backfire. But let's talk about privacy. When you're an average joe on the internet, your privacy isn't probably much of a concern, and all of these e-famous people were once average joe's on the internet, so many of them have probably left digital footprints. Let's start with an obvious lesson - all of you readers, any information you've put into the internet right now - your picture, your last name, your home address, your phone address, and possibly your email address, right now delete it. Right now. Trust me, if you don't - it might not be today or tomorrow, but that shit will bite you in the ass one day. Even if you posted this stuff 10 years ago on some obscure website that doesn't exist any more, it could be dangerous. And from what I can tell, Alex from I Hate Everything has done all of this correctly, and that has made people more extreme in trying to dox him. To some people it is a game - you know, your typical trolls, thinking that it's funny if something someone doesn't want anyone else to know is leaked and revealed. However, doxxing is not trolling. Hell, it's not even bullying. It is cyberstalking, and if you attempt it, you are a cyberstalker, and in some places, you can be tried as such. Let's start with the most basic problem - if a YouTuber's privacy is invaded, it becomes a security issue. No matter who you are on the internet, you have to deal with some really shady people - some of which have very disturbed psyches. Swatting is still an issue that's still ongoing, and there are many people with far less subscribers than IHE that have been swatted for instance, and it has happened to people with even less harsh opinions of him. Your phone number gets out, you've got to deal with prank calls - and it's another way that a terrorist can swat you. So, what have people tried to do to get ''I Hate Everything's ''information? Email phishing scam maybe? Keylogger? No... they tried to contact his mother's Facebook. I can't properly showcase the emotion in text. I don't even know what to say... but that's creepy. If you do this, you are a creepy person. And honestly, this isn't the only time that I've heard of this happening. Trying to figure out something that an internet personality wants hidden - like their appearance, or their last name - it shows a fundamental lack of respect. Which is why I can't say that there is a benevolent, or even really a non-malicious reason to try to track down this information that people want to keep hidden. This isn't even a "don't feed the trolls" situation. If someone is tracking down information that you didn't put out, they are cyberstalking. ------ This next story... makes me... worried? Angry? I don't know the proper emotion. The channel aLiLCrankCrank currently has 103,000 subscribers and one video. And 3 days before this, it had no videos and the channel went black entirely. Before the 17th of this month he played a character called Pervert Pete. Here's a channel trailer that someone else made for him: link. But if you don't want to click the link, his shtick was trolling on omegle, a sort of chat roulette thing, where he'd do things like "do you want to see my weiner" and he'd show the other person a hotdog. That kind of thing. It was clearly an act made for comedy. There are a lot of people like that. Why am I bringing this guy up? It's sadly not too uncommon for people to grow tired of what they're doing on YouTube and quit. Was I a particular fan of this guy? No, I hadn't heard of him until this scandal broke out. Here's the story as I know it., and he explains in this video link here. He's a single-father with sole custody and if he wanted to keep that custody, he had to kill off his character. By court order. Now... it's borderline impossible for me to not get personal, or political with this. I have many problems with the family court system, and I don't think that I've ever heard a positive story come out of it. And honestly, this doesn't sound out of the realms of plausibility. I could make a separate documentary out of every little facet of its many, many problems. I mean, for starters there is no jury - what happens is almost entirely based on the opinion of a judge - who may have their own biases, and all too often they do. A lot of them are older, and may not understand technology, some of them may be prejudiced in some way, and there exists the outright corrupt. This is the very reason we have juries. I mean, in this situation alone - a channel with 100k subscribers could easily pay about as well as a minimum wage job, so now that family has less money. Remember, all for the good of the child. I don't... even know really what to say about this story. It's a very worrying scenario that this man found himself in. It's hard to imagine. I think some people would say that this was a hard choice, but it's not Also, H3H3 is being sued for copyright infringement. Like really, real going to court link World sucks, kay, bye. Category:Miscellaneous